In America, our sidewalks are only large enough for one-two people to walk side-by-side. They are made for passing through one place to another –not for loitering, chatting, and getting to know the community.

I’ve traveled to a couple other countries (India for example) that culturally, have a much more central focus on community and there, the areas for people to walk are much much larger.

In India, there are many places, whole cities even, that are so filled with people that they are impassable to cars. Life happens on the streets. People sit and talk, there are open-air markets and many stores have the entire wall facing the street open. As a result, you spend much more time mingling with the community and getting to know people.

I read an article with the former Prime Minister (at least, I think he was prime minister) of Columbia in the New York Times magazine. He said, “Sidewalks are essential for democracy,” because they are where people of all levels of society interact.

Here, we have suburbs with no sidewalks and no town squares–no central meeting place. Now, it’s common for people not to even know their neighbors, making families more isolated and minimizing the importance of the community.

What are your thoughts on the ethical argument for not eating animals. Specifically, the argument from Gary Francione that states that since animals have a vested interest in continuing to exist, we should not infringe upon that by killing them. You might think of Michael Pollan’s explanation found in the Omnivore’s Dilemma so I’d encourage you to read a Vegan’s response to that chapter here.

Sharon

Which version does Trent play? Which version do the rest of you play? Is one better than another?

Thanks for any info.

I was in a grocery store and across the way, saw a photo on a magazine, Newsweek, of a polar bear looking back at me. 50/50 chance the North Pole will completely melt this summer. I started crying and couldn’t stop.

Well, almost! When I was fifteen or sixteen my dad had this idea to build a post-and-beam shed – without power tools – “just to see if he could do it” – “for the lawnmower and snowblower”. He and my grandfather spent a good month and a half preparing the foundation and hand-drilling 8″x8″ beams for the frame and assembling them with dowels and old-fashioned cut nails (and a homemade wooden hammer, the head of which is about the size of my head). When it was time to put the thing together, obviously these frame sections were too heavy to lift, so we had a good old-fashioned ‘shed-raising’ – the neighbors came over, both sets of grandparents, friends, and nearby relatives. And a reporter from the town newspaper. It turned out to be really fun – we ended with a cookout – and the shed was essentially built in a day. The siding and roofing were another matter, but the frame had come together with neighborhood help, which was really cool to watch!